Brilliantly written, great story of winning against all odds
The Outcasts: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 1 (The Brotherband Chronicles) by John Flannagan
Book on Amazon | My review on Amazon
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed January 7, 2018
The intended audience of this book/series is primarily young teen boys. As a mother of one of those, I very much enjoy the writings of John Flanagan. My son and I read together for fun, and we have read the whole of “Ranger’s Apprentice” series (also highly recommended, from the same author). Now starting on the Brotherband series, I am not disappointed.
Even though there are quite a lot of technical sailing terminology, I found that they didn’t come in the way of following the plot. This book captures the essence of the struggles of a bunch of outcasts – boys who are “different” from others, each with his own individual back-story. The plot and its twists are quite realistic, the characters life-like. The main character Hal is a very likable hero.
I see some elements of the Dreamworks movie “How to train your dragon”, especially in the parallels between the character of Hal in this book and Hiccup, the young hero of the movie.
Although this book is complete in itself, there is a hook at the end of the story, to keep you wanting to know what happens next! It’s clearly the start of a series, and I am hooked!
